At the very entrance of chap. 5 we find peace with God for all who have been justified by faith in the quickening power of God and in His word. This peace with God is the first result of the work of Christ mentioned in the last verse of the preceding chapter, our justification by faith being connected with the verse before (24) of that chapter. First comes justification before God, then peace with God. Both do not necessarily always take place at the same time, 1 do not mean on God's side but on the side, i.e. in the soul, of the believer. The first word of our risen Savior in the midst of His own was: “PEACE!” but not only peace, but “peace unto you!” — “And when He had so said, He showed them His hands and His side,” i.e. He pointed to His wounds, to His accomplished redemption work, as the fountain and foundation of their salvation and peace with God. Thus the disciples beheld in their Risen Savior at the same time before their wondering eyes the work and person of Jesus, who had made peace by the blood of His cross, and whom God in His redeeming love had delivered for their—and our—offenses, and in divine power had raised again for their—and our—justification.
Over our Savior's empty grave arose peacefully the sun, reflecting the glory of His Father who had raised Him from the dead, gilding with its beams the dark entrance of the grave and the stone, on which the heavenly messenger of resurrection in his long white garment was seated (Mark 16:2-52And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. 3And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? 4And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great. 5And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted. (Mark 16:2‑5)). Not a single cloud on the blue sky. The last grumbling of the thunder from Sinai has died away; for the handwriting of ordinances that was against us had been nailed to the cross, where Jesus, who had magnified the law and had borne its curse, had been made a curse for us. The wrath of God, who is a consuming fire, had spent itself at the cross upon the “Son of His love,” when He who knew no sin, was made sin for us; and when He, whom none could convince of sin, “Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree,” when He, who bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, when the chastisement of our peace was upon Him that by His stripes we might be healed. God's majesty which we had offended, His righteousness contrary to which we had acted, His holiness against which we had sinned and His truth which we had dared to belie, had been so fully met on the cross, and satisfied in all their inalienable claims, that God raised His Son from the dead, not only because this was due to Him in His threefold character, (1.) as Son of Man, (2.) as Son of David, and (3.) as Son of God (compare Acts 2:24 -28, 30-32, 3424Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. 25For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: 26Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: 27Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 28Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. (Acts 2:24‑28)
30Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; 31He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. 32This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. (Acts 2:30‑32)
34For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, (Acts 2:34); Rom. 1:3, 43Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; 4And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: (Romans 1:3‑4)), but because He, who as our Substitute had been “delivered for our offenses,” must be raised for our justification, not only as the “first-born from among the dead,” but as the “firstborn of many brethren.” Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
It was on the cross that God's “mercy and truth met together,” and “righteousness and peace kissed each other.” Therefore God could bid His sun of peace rise over the empty tomb of His Son, until the risen One Himself with His own eyes brought His mourning disciples the joyful message of peace. Conqueror in the most awful of all battles, He appeared in their midst, and announced to them the first result of His sufferings and death: “PEACE UNTO YOU!”
From the deep waters of death that had been beneath and around Him, and from the fiery billows of Jehovah that had rolled over His head, when deep called unto deep at the noise of His water-spouts, when all His waves and His billows had gone over Him, Jesus had come up victoriously.
“Peace” was the first word of our risen Savior. Peace, “peace with God,” the Holy Ghost repeats at the very entrance of our chapter, as the first result of the work and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, mentioned at the close of the chapter preceding. “Grace to you and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ,” is the apostolic and heavenly greeting through the Spirit of God to the divers churches.
Grace and mercy through the Son,
Is the answer from the throne.
This “peace with God,” mark, Christian reader, does not depend upon our feelings nor our experiences, but rather produces them suitably. More than eighteen hundred years ago that “peace” was made. It rests on the work of Jesus Christ, and is inseparably connected with it. By that redemption work of His Son, accomplished on the cross, God has been fully satisfied in all His claims, and therefore we, who are justified by faith, have peace with God. When Jesus bowed His head upon the cross and said, “It is finished,” God from heaven pronounced His “yea” and “Amen,” by rending in two from the top to the bottom the veil that was in the temple, and which had hitherto been the partition between His holy presence and the sinner. A man would have rent it from the bottom to the top; God rent it from the top to the bottom, as a sign that He in all His claims of divine righteousness, holiness and truth has been so fully met and satisfied through the sacrifice of His Son, that henceforth there was no more separation wall between Him and even the vilest sinner, who has no other passport but the Name, and no other title to present to God but the blood, of His Son Jesus Christ which cleanseth from all sin.
I repeat, reader, that our peace with God does not rest upon our feelings, nor upon our experiences, but on the atoning sacrifice and redemption work of Jesus Christ, which has been accomplished once for all. Therefore our peace with God (not with ourselves) is just as firm and secure and as eternally founded, as is the precious foundation itself, on which it rests. If I were to found that peace upon my poor heart and its constantly changing feelings and experiences, I might just as well found it on the high and low tide of the sea. At high tide the ship enters the harbor with all sails set, and after a few hours at low tide it lies helpless on one side in the mud! How many who seek peace with themselves, i.e. with their own poor heart, instead of with God, find themselves in this lamentable condition; while there are others, who knowing well that “he that trusteth in his own heart is a fool” (Prov. 28:2626He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered. (Proverbs 28:26)), are yet seeking to make their peace with God dependent on the work of the Holy Spirit within them, and thus confound the work of the Son of God accomplished on the cross for us, with the work of the Spirit of God within us—again looking at their own hearts only in another way. They forget, that not the Holy Ghost, but Jesus Christ, is our Savior. The work of Jesus Christ is a work of salvation and redemption, which has been accomplished without, or outside us, once for all. The work of the Spirit of God is a work of sanctification, continually going on within us, who have been justified by faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, and in the power of God who raised Him from the dead, and thus we have peace with God.
This reminds me of a Christian lady, of whom I once read, who had long tried to make her peace with God dependent upon her feelings. She was upright in all her endeavors but felt all the more miserable. But “unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness,” and their “end is peace.” One night she dreamed that she was rolling down a steep hill towards a deep precipice. In her distress she caught hold of a small projecting branch at the mouth of the pit, and cried, “Lord Jesus, save me!” A voice from the deep answered her, “Let go the twig.” “Why, it is my only support to keep me from falling.” Again she cried with a louder voice, “Lord Jesus, save me!” The same voice again answered, “Let go the twig.” “Impossible!” she thought, “I cannot let go the twig: it would be certain destruction.” For the third time she cried in extreme agony, “Lord Jesus, have mercy upon me; save me.” And again the same voice replied, “Unless you let go the twig, you cannot be saved!” She then let go the twig, and fell down—right into the arms of her Savior. She awoke; and it did not cost her much trouble to understand and realize the truth conveyed to her by that dream. The little twig to which she had clung, and which she had made her refuge, was her own heart with its changing and unreliable feelings, which she had trusted rather than her Lord and Savior, and His ever perfect valid redemption work. She had built her peace upon sand; but now she rested it on Christ, who has made peace and is our peace.
(To be continued, D.V.)